PS, I have heard a rumour that Struthers are planing to change their name so that new people do not find this forum when they hear of the church.

Again, no interest in justice, just looking for ways to cover it up. The story of tyrants through the ages. What other reason do they have for changing the name of the church?

Thank you to Rainbow for the recent post. I then went back through all your items which, somehow, I’d missed (most being before I joined this forum).
I think I was well on the way out, at least in my heart, by the time of your trials so I’m sorry I missed giving any support.

Most of my reason for leaving was outwith my own control. I definitely was sidelined by Mr Black for a number of years before I had the guts to break free. Far too many years.

One question Rainbow asks is, was Andrew Jewell the only male in leadership. This was always an issue for me. I once challenged a leader as, every week they preached against men. Just an aside or a humerous jibe. She denied it so I suggested she listen back over a month of her taped sermons. It stopped.

There were many men well capable of strong leadership who were never afforded the opportunity. I will put initials here: PS, OM, BMcL to name a few.
There were some women who were clearly NOT leaders.

I liked your style and supportive contributions Rainbow as I also find it difficult when people are named, knowing I once preached similar wrong stuff. I remember once preaching that makeup was wrong, ‘especially as one had to look in a mirror to put it on’. How completely ridiculous and my apology is here.
I now wouldn’t assault anyone by going out without at least a little facial enhancement :-)

By the way I have been reading all current posts but could not think of a contribution. The posts were not in vain.

Interesting reading from Rainbow. Thanks for your contributions. I remember your family. Your mum and dad did a superb work with the young people. They were very well liked and I was sad to hear of your dad’s recent passing. They were hard workers in Struthers.
Regarding Andrew and Rhian, I do believe they are good people who have also realised many of the Struthers errors. They were young during the time you mentioned and were learning as they went along. I’m sure their style of leadership would be very different if they were to assume such a role now.
I hear from time to time from people who are still in Struthers and it doesn’t sound a happy place to be. Still the same controlling, bullying. Everyone I hear from talks mainly about Greenock and Glasgow and are of the overwhelming opinion that their Glasgow church should close. They appear to be trying to raise a lot of money for church repairs for an ever dwindling congregation without any conscience of all the money that was lost in the school fiasco. One wonders if any lessons have been learned from the school finances debacle and how that all was handled? It’s very clear that nothing has changed. Both Greenock and Glasgow are ageing congregations, many poor souls will have been there for 40, 50 years or more. Some of them will feel it’s simply too late for them to find a new church at their age and stage in life and therefore remain, living under burdens they were never intended to carry, unhappy and totally confused with the mass exodus that has taken place in the past two years. How do the leaders feel for all these elderly souls who have given of the very best years of their lives? Are they respected by the leadership and treated with kindness and compassion? Or are they just ignored, overlooked, has-beens who have no say in how Struthers is run in this day and age? I think we probably know the answer to that one.

Hey everyone, thank you so much for the replies and your kind words.

I will not lie. I had the fear a few hours after I posted and thought, what have I done. But I feel a sense of peace now and I know I have done the right thing. I would rather be clear about who I am before anything is leaked. Hopefully I can be honest, get some answers, heal and move on, and maybe even help others along the way.
I am going to set out a few points just to make things clear, as I know a lot of people read this forum.

1. I have told a number of Struthers and ex Struthers members, when asked, that I do not post on here. Clearly that was not true. I was scared of the repercussions of speaking the truth and sharing my experience. I was also worried about causing upset to others. So to those who now know it is me, I hope you understand why I did not want to say.
I have not read back all my posts. I did explain that some things are not completely factual. What I meant was that I think I may have suggested I do not have children now, or that I joined the church while I was at uni. I dropped in things like this to hide my identity, as I know for a fact there is a lot of speculation about who is who. The experiences I had in the church that I have shared are not made up. They are true.

2. I was deeply hurt during my time in the church by individuals and by situations. I believe I suffered spiritual abuse. I believe I suffered trauma and deep rejection. I had a medically diagnosed mental breakdown three years ago and my therapists believe it was the result of a build up of things I endured as a teenager in the church. Some of my posts may lash out or may not be very constructive, but I know most of them were written calmly, and sharing helped me a lot.

3. I have spoken with many people still in the church and many who have left. I have absolutely no intention of breaking anyone’s confidence. I will not share anyone else’s experiences, feelings or stories. They are not mine to tell. I am not here to expose anyone or cause shame. I will share my own experience honestly and truthfully. So please, if you have been in touch, do not worry.

4. What upset me recently in the forum was the change in the dynamic. Many have clearly suffered and sharing can be healing and helpful. I certainly felt less alone when I realised it wasn’t just me. I felt it became a bit of a bitch fest and a lot of ‘he said, she said’. I am not into gossip, especially not about me or my dad, and even more so when I left twenty five years ago.

5. I understand what ileftstrutherscult (sorry if I got your name wrong!) said about Andrew and Rhian. I am sure what you said is true and that their views and teachings may have changed. They were young and I believe they were wrongly given an huge amount of responsibility. Unfortunately my own experience with them was very unpleasant and wasn’t just about their teachings and beliefs. There were personal attacks, gossip, things they said about me and the way they treated me was personal. As many know, they influenced a huge group of students and young people, and when they advised them not to speak to me and to avoid me, that had a serious effect on my mental health and confidence. I do not feel ready to share more just now, but I might in the future. I also understand that they may have regrets or remorse. Maybe they do not even realise the damage they caused to so many. I do not say this as gossip. It’s factual for my own personal experience and caused much damage. It’s a huge part of my story. Sadly I know of many more stories but they are not mine to tell.

6. A member of the church told me that a leader had told them I was to leave. They told me this, just outside the Greenock church next to the coffee shop. I remember it so clearly. So I did. I left. A leader also told me not to attend church camps because of my lifestyle.

7. My lifestyle was this; I went to school and later to work. I attended church 6-7 days a week, I did not smoke, drink or take drugs. I did not watch or own a TV. I did not listen to pop music or read magazines. I covered myself head to toe in the worst clothing. I read my bible, I wore no make up or jewellery. I didn’t mix with non Christians, I prayed, I repented daily. And at one point I had a relationship with a boy, which I tried to keep hidden. This is where it went wrong for me. All in all I was a pretty good kid, until it went wrong.

8. I was told I was demon possessed and I received deliverance on 2 occasions. It was traumatic and terrifying. Looking back I do not believe that I was a demon possessed 17 year old. Maybe hormonal but not demon possessed.

9. Leaving the church was very difficult as it was my whole life. I was there 7 days a week, my friends were there, it was my life. I had very, very little outwith and felt like I lost so much over night. However I have now built a wonderful life and I feel blessed. But I know I am on a journey and will keep trying to better myself as a person. I am very open about my struggles with anxiety and mental health but I have wonderful people around me and receiving all the support I need. I do (at the moment) attend a lovely church.

As I said before, it was not all was bad. I made some good friends and have some fun memories. Ironically it’s made me who I am today (is that good or bad?!)

I am sure more will come to mind. As I said, I will not mention names of church members unless they were leaders, because I believe leaders had a duty of care and responsibility and some of them broke that trust.

I am open to questions. I will be honest, and if I cannot answer something or not comfortable to do so I will say so.

I do not want to hurt anyone or cause damage. I just want closure. An apology would be nice, but I reckon I would be waiting another twenty five years for that. God bless everyone xxx



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2025 05:40AM by Rainbow.

One of the things Rainbow recently said was, “I know a lot of people read this website” and that got me to wondering just how many do read it, so I jumped over to Semrush.com, which provides info about the number of page hits on any website.
I found the average number of visits per month for the cult education forum is 30.21k per month, so about a thousand hits per day.

What is really fascinating is however the breakdown provided. If you scroll down the page, it says, “Here are the keywords that drive the most organic search traffic to the domain.”

Followed by the following table:

          Christian Fell Feedback Feedback          19.75% 
          Struthers Memorial Church Cult            19.75%
          Struthers Church Cult                     13.16%
          Struthers Cult                            10.69%

So, only tasking into account the most common search phrases, Struthers accounts for about 43% of the traffic to the cult education website. There may be other Struthers-related search terms that have a lower percentage, so it may be a fair bit bigger than this. 50% would certainly seem not much of a stretch.

Even at that minimum, that is an average of over 500 hits per day that specifically include the word Struthers and the word cult, and link to the Struthers Memorial Church pages on the cult education forum.

If you continue to scroll, you will find the “Top pages by Organic Traffic”, which are introduced with the explanation, “See which of the website's pages drives the most organic traffic. This data highlights each page's share of total organic traffic, the number of keywords it ranks for, and how much overall traffic it's driving per month.”

(“Organic traffic” is by the way unpaid visits, which is 100% of the visits to the culteducation website.)

The top page here has 41% of the traffic. It is [forum.culteducation.com], which just happens to be a certain Struthers Memorial Church.

This is the stuff the leaders are saying is irrelevant and going away: 500 hits a day this month. As a contributor noted fairly recently, “The most complained about church in the UK".

This is not going away folks, it is attracting 500 hits a day, 15,000 a month specifically on the Struthers pages. That is more than listen to Struthers sermons.

So enjoy posting, knowing more people will read your words than listen to Diana's sermons.

Morning everyone! Hope you are good. I had a quick question about the forum rules. In the past when I had ‘the fear’ about over sharing there is no option to delete. Which is fair enough. I have to own what I choose to post. I did ask for my profile to be deleted but I had no option to do that. I don’t believe it is a something we can do - can anyone confirm?

On occasion I have reported posts which (according to the rules) in my opinion where not ok. Broke the rules and weren’t appropriate for the forum. But the response I received from moderators was to argue back and debate it. I am concerned about this and what is being encouraged in here.

If the admin could respond I would be grateful.

It is great seeing your posts, but I want to say I strongly agree with the Moderator not allowing changes or deletions of previous posts. That would make the forum unreliable. If we've written something we no longer like, then we can always write a new post to clarify it. One of the great strengths of this forum is that most of what is written is true, which is why it is so appalling that the leaders past and present continue to ignore our questions about various financial and emotional practices

The Petitor has given a great breakdown of how many people read this site. Where are you all? Would be good to hear from you.
Since we now know that, there are quite a few people from the past who disappeared before we did whom it would be interesting to catch up with.
As a couple we’ve often wondered what happened to Tash who used to visit from London in the very early 80s.
For my part I’d love to know where a great peer of my era, Carol McTaggart went and how she is now.
There are others I often wonder about.
There is a direct (& confidential) messenger facility here for anyone who’d like to get in touch.

I said at the top of this page that:

Quote
ThePetitor page 266
I have heard a rumour that Struthers are planing to change their name so that new people do not find this forum when they hear of the church.

Again, no interest in justice, just looking for ways to cover it up. The story of tyrants through the ages. What other reason do they have for changing the name of the church?

Well, it seems the rumours are correct, and the SMC plans to remain as a single legal organisation but use different names for each branch. I do hope they will comply with all the regulations such as including the company/ charity name and number on the home page of each website (not hidden in a menu, but on the home page itself - that is the legal requirement) so that there is a link back to the legal organisation.

I will not hold my breath however, as they do not comply with this aspect of the law at the moment. (As an aside, why not? Every other church in the country complies with this requirement. Why do folk in Struthers not pay any attention to the obligations they have as a Limited Company and a Charity? The only answer I can find is that they think they are a law unto themselves and do not accept any level of accountability. Would you really trust your children to an organisation that blatantly disregards the law in this way?)

Anyway, I was particularly intrigued by the proposals for the Falkirk branch, which apparently plans to call itself "The Almond Tree Fellowship". I thought that was worth checking out so I typed Almond Tree Bible into Google.

The result was an introduction that said:

Quote
Result of google search for Almond Tree Bible
The almond tree is mentioned in the Bible primarily in the book of Jeremiah, where its Hebrew name, shaked, means "to watch". This connection is used to symbolize God's watchfulness over His word to bring it to pass. The almond is also found in other biblical contexts, such as the account of Aaron's rod and the description of old age in Ecclesiastes

it then goes on to list three Bible references, Jeremiah 1v11-12, Numbers 17v8 and Ecclesiastes 12:5, giving a bullet point about each.

I was particularly intrigued by the third of these bullet points, which is:

Quote
Bullet point three of the Google response to "Almond Tree Bible"
Ecclesiastes 12:5: The almond tree is used metaphorically to describe the aging process. The "blossoming of the almond tree" is a symbol for the whitening of a person's hair in old age, representing the coming of winter or a time of decline.

I wonder if this selection of this name is perhaps more prophetic than they think.

In answer to your question , Rainbow , Struthers did not make me a kind person . In fact they caused me to have many many difficult thoughts and experiences at a developing time of life .


My parents brought me up so well .. and yes I am a good , kind person . God will be my judge .


What they ( Struthers ) did was cause .. negativity .. fear ..anxiety ..doubt and many other not so good feelings . Be in this world ,but not of it . Death to self .. was that preached in your time ?